Anita Brooks-Kirkland - virtual library as hub

After reading the article by Brooks-Kirkland http://clatoolbox.ca/casl/slicv27n3/273brookskirkland.html  I'm becoming more interested with good web design principles as I noted in previous posts for this blog as this was something my school needed. I contacted Anita and will be in touch with her to ensure that I learn from her experience in this area.

For instance, Anita writes "If our students are confused by what they see, they will go elsewhere. The website design needs to help our students connect to the right starting point for their research, depending on their information need, their prior learning, and their reading level." This will be important going forward in designing the website for the virtual library. We will want to ensure the highest level of access that students find incredibly user friendly and inviting.

Teaching students how to use certain tools that will improve their research skills as well as teaching them how to properly source their work including the proper sources of images. This information reminds me of what was learned in Module 4. There were some great links on pictures that I will be able to share with students to show them images they are allowed to use without necessarily always asking the author of the image for permission.

PageFlakes was recommended as a tool that could be used to "gather news and blog feeds, interactive maps, search widgets and all manner of resources together in one place, drawing continuously updated information into the virtual library site". I googled page flakes not knowing what it was and found out that it is an app that enables the use to customize their home page.  It didn't have a very strong review two and a half out of 19 votes. I think it may be out of date as another site suggested that it stopped running in 2012.

 

What I really connect with in this article is the focus on aligning the technological use with the greater purpose of harnessing the tools to enhance the instructional goals and not solely for the sake of using the technology itself.  I would love to see more peer reviewed journal articles on this topic. I will look into subscribing to a journal where I can see effective technological practices being implemented in education so that I may have the most up to date information to guide my school in this area.

 

The third module of this course highlighted the need for effective collaboration strategies to maximize learning for lesson and unit planning. A number of my classmates reported success with using Google Apps for Education. For instance, in this article Brooks-Kirkland cites the example of a "teacher-librarian Roger Nevin of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board in Ontario who uses Google Apps for Education to facilitate collaborative learning across the school". I have never seen that level of collaboration at any school.

 

The article finishes with the need for "alignment, infrastructure and investment in resources and staffing needed to make it work effectively". It will be interesting to see how things change in this area as there has been so much limiting teachers use of technology in the classroom and library. I would love to see all schools return to have a full time librarian with a high degree of expertise in implementing appropriate changes to creating a learning commons that meets the needs of the 21st century learner.